Re-locating Williams Creek - 1

The Williams Creek bridge scene, which has been featured in Model Railroad Hobbyist and appears in the title banner of this blog, became one of the most recognizable scenes on the layout - if for no other reason than it was closest to being the one scene that was "done." So my crew was somewhat surprised when one of the tasks at the last work session was to remove the Williams Creek scene in order to make room for a longer passing track at Randolph. The Williams Creek scene looked like this (right)

after it was removed. Since January it has been sitting somewhat unceremoniously on a shelf in the utility room "awaiting disposition" (to use an old railroad term). 
with the track at Randolph completed, wired and tested it was time to see if I could actually reuse the scene in some other portion of the railroad. The most obvious potential spot was the long section of tangent track on the Essex Junction side of the peninsula. Here's some of the parameters for this project:
1. Although there are some background hills and trees in this area, it's certainly not finished scenery, so I don't mind reworking/removing the scenery in this area. 
2. There is another bridge scene that I've never been terribly pleased with so I have no qualms about removing it to accommodate Williams Creek. 
3. That "other" bridge scene is located in such a way that there was no room to develop anything on either side of it - I might like to add a very small town scene (grade crossing and spur serving one industry) to that area of the layout, so the rebuilding should leave room for that possibility. This means Williams Creek shouldn't be in the same location as the other bridge. 

The first step was locating where the Williams Creek "section" could fit. Since it's too bulky and heavy to slide around on top of the layout (besides, the background hills and trees would be a real problem!) I traced the section full size on a piece of paper, being sure to mark the track centerlines and the approximate position of the river. Using this template I located a spot where the scene drop into place. Looks like it will fit nicely in the area shown above between the edge of the fascia and the spool of green wire. (That "other" bridge scene is just to the left out of the photo). I'm satisfied it will fit, will provide an appealing "out in the country" scene between Waterbury and Essex Junction, and shouldn't be that hard to integrate into the layout…besides, I really don't want to scrap the scene - I've always been pleased with how the water turned out!

Stay tuned…